Wednesday, August 31, 2016

We are having what Eleanor is calling 'the funnest week ever.' We had a streak of like three good days last week, that led into a weekend at my parents' house, and now every time we do anything rad, Eleanor is like, THE FUNNEST WEEK EVER CONTINUES. It all began on a trip to the First Annual Cousin Trip To The Cultus Lake Adventure Park Before Summer Ends All Of A Sudden.

You ARE tall enough to ride! Look at this clambery wilderness, or whatever.

All the rides were perfectly sized, there were maybe two that Eleanor wouldn't go on. She is not super into roller coasters, I think it's being bonked around that does it, although she did do this little one with me, twice.

The swings were her favorite (I brought my phone up, all Oh I'm going to take such a good picture, but then you're swinging out over the water and I couldn't do it! So hat's off to Leah for holding her phone BOLDLY in the air for this one).

The bumper boats were great, the carousel was great, this donkey was great

and then she went on THIS thing

That is a terrible picture. THIS thing

like five times. I taught her about screaming in delighted terror and she was INTO IT.

And then we went to Coneheads for ice cream at like 8:30pm because we are wild childs. See you next year, adventure park.

Monday, August 22, 2016

We went CAMPING. In a HEAT WAVE. It was so, so hot, and we weren't on a lake or anything because we didn't book a site until like last Wednesday so we ended up at Bridal Falls, at this RV campsite where they clearly realized they could make a few extra bucks by letting people pitch tents on this sward of grass with like zero shade or privacy or anything, and we DIDN'T CARE because I can't remember the last time we went camping and didn't get rained out.

But so these ages are great for camping. They can hammer with a hammer!

They can eat a giant burger!

They can play on the teeny, rickety playground!

They don't care if the s'more is raw because there is a fire ban on.

They don't wake up at, like, 5! They wake up after 6! And then they sit and read in the tent until it's late enough to go outside and make a bunch of noise!

They know how to use binoculars! (No they do not.)

Anyway. It was so, so hot, but we hiked up to the falls (in the shade)

and sat on the giant log-chair

and platted around in the stream.

Geneva had her nap in the sweltering tent and woke up AWASH in a sea of sweat and drank my entire club soda to replenish.

Eleanor had her quiet time under a tree with a coloring book and strict instructions not to talk to us, even though she could still see us because there was a like fifteen-foot square patch of shade and we all had to be in it.

And then she fell asleep because camping is exhausting.

Our campsite also had a pool, which was MARVELOUS, and none of the RV'ers seemed to use it! It didn't open until noon, but that's where we spent the entirety of our afternoon. Eleanor is a fine leapstress.

Geneva, who before that day would not voluntarily go in water over her thighs, made great strides in bravery.

Look at this little bird, swimming away by her lonesome.

The evening continued to be SO HOT and our site didn't get any shade until the sun went behind the mountains at around 6:30, so we took ourselves to the nearby wetlands for another hike.

Two hikes in one day! Also, what is this little birdsnesty plant? It is so Seussy!

This was such a great trip, despite the heat. The girls are so old and reasonable, Geneva was only up once each night and then slept until 8am the second morning,

Eleanor can sleep in a sleeping bag LIKE A HUMAN (although our tent was on a slight slant, so the second night she slid halfway through the partition into Geneva's room). At one point, Joel and I were each doing An Important Packing Thing and he mentioned how, when we went camping with Eleanor as a toddler, one of us would have to be monitoring her while the other one did all the work. And I was like, Yeah, but she was so little then, and our kids are so big.

Monday, August 08, 2016

JOSIEEEEE. Friend of my heart. She is in town with her family for a wedding, and to go down to Disneyland, but most importantly, to meet me at the park this morning and let me cry all over her. It is perhaps no secret that I am not coping super well. I just thought this would be easier. Major life change is hard, who knew.

But, like, I'm generally a flexible and positive person! I thought I would be doing so much better at this! But on the other hand, people in BC are insufferable about how great their province is YOU GUYS IT IS NOT THAT GREAT. Random strangers being smug at me when they find out we just came from Saskatoon and being like, Oh yeah? And there was like nothing to do there? I bet you're so glad to be in BC now. It makes me want to list off a dozen things that were amazing about Saskatoon OR a dozen things that suck about this town, like ok you have mountains but you can only look at them for so long and your damn beaches are all ROCKS and your parks are all bark mulch and why do I even own sand toys, there is no sand for miles.

Bark mulch is the worrrrrrst. But ok Josie. My partner in positivity. Being around Josie reminds me what I like about myself, what I find beneficial about a positive outlook. We are going to adapt, we are going to be fine, we are going to get used to Cultus and its stupid rock beaches and the pain of losing all of our very excellent parks is going to recede. I am going to miss Josie FOREVER but life is hard and that's ok and we have facetime.